The point guards at (just past) mid-season

These stats are from games through the All-Star break. To be included, players needed 500 minutes played. Rankings are in parenthesis. Points allowed (and similar stats) are estimated from lineup versus lineup data from every game played, based on projected position. Net defensive stats are expected versus actual stats allowed, using a weighted average of possessions against a specific player.
Coming into the season, most Bobcats fans would probably have said that point guard was the position where the team was strongest, with D.J. Augustin coming off a solid season as the unquestioned starter, and a new lottery pick in Kemba Walker to back him up. The fans were right. But, at this point in the season, that says more about the rest of the roster than just these two players, as D.J. and Kemba have underwhelmed. Take a look.

Mediocre offensive performance, at best. D.J. is right around the midpoint in both scoring rate and efficiency, while Kemba scores more than most point guards but needs far too many shots to accomplish it. Both are just above the PER cutoff line for above average performance of 15, but nothing to brag about.

There were 57 players who hit the minutes cutoff. Across these stats, D.J. had an average rank of 26.7, and Kemba was at 29.3. Mediocre.

Thoughts on D.J. Augustin: We’ve all watched D.J. play. He is not a great defender. These numbers say he’s at least good. My thought? The Bobcats have enough weaker defenders that DJ has not been targeted.

Average rank of 23.6 for D.J. across the defensive stats, and 31.0 for Kemba. A little separation between the two – but still neither distinguishes (or embarrasses) himself. Kemba shows the potential for improvement in defense with his strong athleticism based stats (defensive rebounding and blocked shots), so there is hope Kemba will move up in these rankings as he better learns to play defense in the NBA.